Cockfighting rooster kills California man

We've seen matadors get their comeuppance before, but here's another entry in Boing Boing's ongoing series of animal karma: during the commotion at a police raid of a cockfight, one of the roosters decked out with razor-sharp blades cut a guy so badly he died. The headlines write themselves, so please add yours in the comments. Also, cocks.

A very restrained headline, Boing Boing. If this were a tabloid (except the UK’s Daily Mail who would probably complain that the guy wasn’t paying tax on the razor blades or something), I would imagine it would have actually read:

“Californian guy killed by cock”

in big bold letters, enticing the curious to read on.

That said, I’m increasingly reading about instant karma and that of animals extracting their revenge on clueless humans. Forget “Rise of the Machines”, it’s more of a “Rise of the Cocks”.

Having lived in an area that allowed cockfighting it was well known how dangerous some gamecocks can be if you get on their bad side. Or even just too close. They’re a VERY easily spooked, not at all caring of or for humans at all sort of bird. Totally not even comparable to the bird in recent TV ads that’s got no nuggets. If you’ve ever had a bred fighter take a run at you? It might forever change your perception of birds in general.

In theoretical concept- breeding for fighters is supposed to be over and there “should be” no more of their kind around by one reading of such laws. In reality? there’s several bloodlines of damned dangerous birds still around quite legally depending on state laws.

I’d not suggest underestimating what even an unbladed bird can do to an unsuspecting human or animal. If the bird’s survived a few fights? Being around it if it’s got blades strapped on is edging into Darwinbaiting even if you think you “know” that bird as they’re not like a dog trainable to respect it’s handler! Let’s be honest here..humans setting animals upon each other as a dubious entertainment should be suspected of being sociopaths.

In many cases we called it the Serial Killer Trifecta. Bedwetting of psych basis+Cruelty to animals+Pyromania. That grouping being a very high correlation to Mental Pathologies often strongly ending up criminally violent. The connection to the original article? Looking at the demographics of what sort of person is into animal fighting as entertainment should say a lot.

I’d go so far as to say perhaps the animals are more ethical than the humans due to a lack of pretending any claim to well- anything beyond bloodlust.

Or do you guys not use “cock” interchangeably with “stupid idiot” like we do in NZ?

Not generally used in the USA. We do call people dicks or dickheads, and in a few regions you’ll occasionally hear someone refer to something as being “cocked up”, but we don’t call people cocks, and even if we did it would mean someone we didn’t like, not necessarily someone stupid.

In the USA people who are called dicks or assholes are people who have objectionable personalities or personal habits, they aren’t necessarily also stupid. A knucklehead, bonehead or “stupid fuck” is what we generally call someone stupid.

Yes, because the humans had some choice in the matter. The guy routinely had animals fight to the death for his amusement – when one ends up killing him instead it’s karmic payback, not a tragedy. There’s no guilt at all in joking about it.

I’m scared enough of the humble Magpie (having been on the receiving end of quite a few swoops in my day), the idea of a bird actually decked out in razor blades coming toward me is even more terrifying.

New book out…Simply cases of animals acting on instinct? That’s what the zoos and animal theme parks would have you believe. But historian Jason Hribal tells a different story. In the most provocative book on animal rights since Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, Hribal argues persuasively that these escapes and attacks are deliberate, that the animals are acting with intent, that they are asserting their own desires for freedom. “Fear of the Animal Planet” is a harrowing, and curiously uplifting, chronicle of resistance against the captivity and torture of animals…

Cock fighting has various styles including putting on blades to inflict damage and death. Let’s face it a person, no matter how ignorant or insensitive, died and that is not something to joke about. The type of person who takes part in cock fighting is no different than those who stage dog fights or bull fights. But they don’t deserve to die, but I didn’t mind reading that it happened.